Thursday, August 18, 2005

So concerning the shitstorm unleashed by the artists over at avantgame, I'll only say this in summation. I don't think that I've willfully misconstrued the intent of their 'game.' Rather, I feel that the artists have not fully thought out all of the possible headaches that such a project could entail for retailers, and have not even properly thought out the ethical ramifications of treating someone else's property as if it were their own. I think the whole thing smacks of a sense of entitlement that is sickening, as if they are entitled to have the right to do this 'art' in someone else's store without their consent or knowledge, and a disregard for the possible outcomes from their 'art' for others. Which is why I think it's stupid.

But the zombie mob was cool. Stupid. But cool and funny. So I think it's possible to do decentralized 'smart mob' type art events in a public space and have it be cool.

I hate it when someone makes me sound like a conservative. But I guess it's just my inner curmudgeon coming out. Damned kids. ;) Kind of smacks of LARPing too. Which is lame. (snark)

Anyway, enough about that stuff.

I made some bread last night. I consider it a borderline failure. I wanted to make something quite dense and wheaty, so I used some 50/50 wheat/white flour, a little white flour, and some ground flax seed, and some ground oats. I let it rise quite a bit, but I don't think I kneaded the dough enough. It's quite dense and crunchy, almost too much. It's good with some olive oil and some zatar, though.

Also, George R. R. Martin is finally putting out a Feast For Crows, November 8th. BN has some one chapter excerpts for free on a display at the store. I'm not a huge fan of most fantasy, as I prefer sci-fi, mostly, but this stuff is good. Gritty. I heartily recommend it if you haven't read it.

Oh yeah, and anybody know if the lake has turned over with all this rain we've been getting. The water tastes terrible lately, here in Fayetteville.

Hope Ken and Wes and all are having fun up at GenCon. I would like to play TrueDungeon, but I can't see shelling out that kind of cash for a convention.

11 Comments:

Yeah, I thought about it last night and thought, "you know, it's just not a very well thought out prank", and I decided that it probably wasn't worth all the ranting I did on my blog. So that was BALEETED.

Maybe their next prank will be less "clever" and more funny. Maybe something like the improv everywhere guys, where they're actually trying to make people smile (besides themselves).

Well they referenced Godwin's law, in response to one of my comments. My comment was simply not to play the Nazi card (but I will) that I didn't care that they had (so they claimed) overwhelming support from bloggers. The Nazis came to power by a democratic movement (I know I know, that grossly oversimplifies the case, but at the root of it, I'm right). Public support of unethical behavior does not make said behavior magically ethical.

Did my comparison go overboard? Maybe, for some. But the Nazis are a perfect example of rampant unethical behavior being condoned by a lot of people. A comparison that I felt applied here, and was perfectly apt.

Pete, I have to say, you're writing also is getting better and far more frequent, which I like, a lot.

I posted my long winded response to the Avante Game thing on the last comment string. I know it sounds a little ranty, but I want to point out that I'm not trying to condemn or judge you guys, or even think you're necessarily 'wrong' (in any rational sense), I just disagree fundamentally with your priorities.

Bread making is not something that I do regularly, but it is quite fun to attempt. I'm much better as main course type stuff, stuff with meat and sauces and vegetables, etc. But bread is fun. My trouble is I try to wing it too much. I get impatient.

I like George R.R. Martin but Robert Jordan is my favorite. His new one "Knife of Dreams" will be in stores in October. I cant' wait. Dragon Con should also be coming up soon but I haven't had time to check dates.